Fashion Victims

"Why are you Western women so unfashionable?"
I was asked this rather pointed question by an Afghan male colleague.
I swallowed my indignation as best I could and explained that perhaps the Afghan notion of fashion differs somewhat from the Western one.
I did not say that I purposefully packed only my lowliest clothing to be subjected to the harshness of this environment and also the most dowdy so as not to appear too wanton.
In Naipaul's An Area of Darkness he writes of Kashmir: "In this medieval dirt and greyness beauty was colour, equally admired in a fine rug, a pot of plastic daisies or...in a fantastic costume."
So true!
Everywhere the sparkly hats on boys and men, the shiny dresses on the poorest of women.
The plastic flowers, oh the plastic flowers, dripping from bicycles, adorning every desk and doorway. Above a pic of one such lovely bouquet and beneath that burqa, guaranteed sparkle.
Here in Kabul some women choose to walk without burqas, so the full array of splendid synthetic wear from the catwalks of China is on display.
What fun it was to visit Afghanistan's only mall yesterday and be swamped by a gaggle of garish women.
Progress...?